It is a dark dawn for our heroes would-be rebellion as not only has the Imperial senate abandoned support for their coup and their forces driven into the lower levels of the planet-spanning Galactic capital in a stunning defeat at the hands of the Galactic Empire, but would would appear to be the Emperor himself has in fact risen from his supposed death on Naboo to lead the Empire in the conquest of their throne world.

Even as the Emperor was seemingly killed again and his minion Darth Vader incapacitated, this time directly at the hands of our heroes, Thrax has been terribly wounded and Akira has vanished while AIdan and Nyla race to the aid of the fast retreating and disintegrating alliance of rebels.

Our heroes now face their greatest challenge yet in the face of total defeat as they strive to rescue their defeated forces amid the collapse of their bold plot to restore peace and justice to the Galaxy and survive to fight another day….

He Heard, and Now He Understands

Akira awoke on white solid ground, confused, but suffering no pain from the injuries he suffered at the hands of what appeared to be the Emperor. Akira rose and discovered that white was all he could see, and that he could not tell where the solid white floor began and where the perfectly white sky ended. He called out to anyone nearby who could hear him, when suddenly from the white abyss emerged a small human female child of a dark complexion.

The child greeted Akira and welcomed him to her realm, and when he asked what realm this was she told him that this was a realm where her conciousness existed, a realm beyond that of the physical nature of the universe itself but a realm which was also connected to it, where passage between the two realms is possible. Akira asked if he was dead, to which the young girl assured him he wasn’t. She explained that he had found his way there because in an instant when defending himself against the Emperor he channelled more power of the Force than most Force-users have ever channelled, and combined with the violent Force scream of the Emperor, Akira was hurled through time, space and the Force itself to this realm. The young girl assured Akira that she always knew he would be safe, so long as he followed the advice that she had given him. Akira was confused by this as he didn’t remember meeting the girl before, to which the girl responded that he and Nyla had in fact met her together, in the physical universe, when they say her by her physical form, the Celestine.

Suddenly Akira remembered. It was when he and Nyla were in the cockpit of Bukah Hozard’s ship Bigger Berta and they had witnessed what Bukah later had told them was a ship of legend, the Celestine, an unmanned ship powered by a droid brain that achieved sentience and travels the galaxy revealing itself only to those it sees fit. At the time it transmitted a confusing signal to Akira and Nyla via radio, but now as Akira remembered the strange haunting transmission he understood it. It was an assurance, an assurance to whomever is hearing it that the Emperor is not infallible, that he can be beaten, and that as doomed as things may seem they are in fact on a path to the resurgence of the light side of the Force. The young child, the Celestine told Akira that she knew that either she or Nyla would be the one who would find their way here to this realm, but she couldn’t be certain which one it would be. It was then that a voice from behind Akira spoke and assured him that he had always known he would be the one to find his way there. Akira turned and found himself face to face with his former , Content Not Found: null.

Akira’s master told his former student that while the distance between them had grown too great, so long as Akira remained in this realm, which was closer to the realm of the Force, they could speak for a brief time. Akira asked if he knew if the figure they faced on Imperial Center was in fact the Emperor, and his master told him it was. When Akira asked how could that be, he was told that somehow the Emperor had found a way to return from the dead, but what may be at a terrible cost. What that cost was Akira’s master did not know, but he assured Akira that such an act of defiance against the nature of the living universe itself would surely come at a terrible price.

Akira was angry to hear this, and demanded to know what the point of everything they had done was if the Emperor could simply return from the dead at will. He asked how could anything they do matter if they would always be struck down by not only his powerful hand but by the might of the entire Galaxy Empire that existed to serve him.

Akira’s master told his student that in only one year of training, of meeting new allies and taking on a student of his own Akira had shaken the very foundation of the Galactic Empire to it’s core and shown that the Emperor could be defeated. He told Akira that though it may take time, he could see the Emperor being defeated for good and the Galactic Empire laying in ashes at the feet of a Galaxy free from tyranny and a Jedi order reborn.

Akira hesitated to respond, still disappointed and heartbroken at the failure of all their plans to unseat the Empire, but he understood his master, and told him that he too believed that they could succeed, acknowledging that he accepted the idea that though he himself may not see the end of Empire he would fight to ensure his son would.

Akira’s master told his former student that though Akira may never be the Jedi he’d originally planned for him to be, he still may be the Jedi that the Galaxy needs. Both master and student wished each other that the Force would be with them both. The Celestine child then told Akira that she would escort him back to the physical universe, taking his hand before he was blinded by a flash of pure white light.

Comrades Retrieved

Through the broken and cratered floor from the sewer drain tunnel underneath, Parias with Content Not Found: null along with Darius’s howling 99 looked at the remains of the battle fought between the Emperor, Vader, Nyla, Aidan, Akira and Thrax.

The entire room was in ruins, with the ceiling blown off as the first hint of daybreak appeared in the sky over the still smouldering ruins of the city-wide battle that had raged just a day before. In the middle of the room lay Thrax, unconscious, and surrounded by Imperial medics and Stormtroopers preparing to take him to an interrogation center where he would surely be tortured when he awoke.

As Parias and Shad discussed how to rescue their injured comrade, a flash of white light blinded the entire, and Akira appeared fully healed and uninjured to the surprise of the Stormtroopers who surrounded him. Akira quickly drew his blade and dispatched the troopers and allowing the unarmed medics to flee. Parias, Shad and the others quickly revealed themselves to Akira, and after a very brief exchange led Akira to the underground passages that lead to the deep lower-levels of the planet where what was left of their forces were currently held up against the still advancing Empire.

With Nowhere to Run

After Akira rejoined the others along with what was left of their friends in the senate and their own security forces, Owen Tobt and what was left of their friends in the planet’s police force, Content Not Found: null_ and her pirate allies and, Content Not Found: null_ and her Mandalorians, Content Not Found: null and the Dantooine miltia, Theux Paddox and his House Troopers from the Tapani Sector and the remaining protesting Clone Wars veterans who had taken up their cause at deep in Level 1313 in the bowels of the Coruscant underworld.

Their forces, numbering less than twenty-thousand were exhausted, having retreated through the levels of the city all night after a full days worth of fighting. They only now had the chance to rest and recouperate because the criminal elments that ruled over the levels above them were no friends of the Empire, and were not fully cooperating in helping the Empire move their forces through the congested levels of the planet. Even still, those same criminal elements were not the friends of our heroes, and had given them a mere twenty-four hours to vacate the entire level. With further retreat all but impossible, there were few options left.

While some considered surrender, Chancellor Vipoth insisted that they would not survive if they surrendered, and assured the heroes that even though things looked bleak she and her political allies were still on the side of the rebellion, even as they had all been branded traitors. It was then that Akira thought to ask their prisoner Director Armand Isard if he knew of any secret way off of the planet. As it turned out, the director, with the Force persuasion of Akira and Nyla told Aidan about a series of emergency escape transports in hidden starports only a few levels beneath where they were. The starports were built by Imperial Intelligence for the purposes of helping Imperial personnel escape the planet in the event of a coup. Even better, the network of transports had the capacity to move nearly fifty-thousand personnel, well more than the heroes and their rebel allies needed.

Aidan wished to now execute the director for Imperial Intelligence’s part in the New Order’s brutality, but only after publicly humiliating him first before the entire Empire as one last humiliation before their escape. Akira warned against this however, as even revealing that the director had been taken prisoner in the first place would alert the Empire to the need to change all of the encryption information that he had provided to Content Not Found: null, rendering scores of secrets and vulnerabilities they had learned about the Empire useless. Reluctantly, Aidan agreed, and after Nyla and Akira wiped his memory clean of the last two days events, they released him into a small transport bound for the surface.

We Shall Return

With what little strength their forces had left, the party and their allies spent the next two days moving their already exhausted forces further down into the planet’s lower levels, until they had reached the secret starports of Imperial Intelligence. Using the entry codes the director had divulged before being released, the party and all of the rebels entered the massive transports, and activated the secret escape tunnels that lead to the planet’s surface. Just before leaving young Content Not Found: null apologized to Nyla for sneaking onto Akira’s ship to travel to Coruscant. He told her that he wanted so badly to see his homeworld again that he had acted foolishly, and was sorry to have caused her so much worry. Nyla told Umdat that he was forgiven, but made him promise not to do something like that again. Umdat agreed, but told Nyla that he would return to Coruscant one day, and that when he did he’d bring enough of his friends with him to free the planet, and that if the Empire ever wanted to push little guys around again they’d have to go through him.

To say the least, Nyla was proud of Umdat and delighted that he no longer lived in fear of the Empire.

With all of the party aboard the Renegade and Akira aboard the Naboo Royal Shuttle he flew to Coruscant days earlier, the party opened the secret tunnels, which they and their allies aboard the once-hidden transports used to fly to the planet’s surface to the surprise of the Imperial forces who had been finally closing in on the rebels. Having passed their pursuers in hundreds of their transports, their vessels blasted their way into the Coruscant sunset as the surprised ground batteries opened fire in vain, hopelessly missing their targets.

With the fleet of hundreds of transports in orbit, the party quickly found themselves staring dead ahead to the Imperial armada that had defeated their naval forces and now surrounded the planet. As they neared the firing range of thousands of Imperial warships, Akira gave the order for all the transports to fly dangerously close together in one small cluster.

The Imperial commanders saw this and thought it was a suicidal move, making the party & the rebels an even easier target. The guns of the Imperial Star Destroyers were brought to bear on the small transports, but a moment before they opened fire Akira flew his Naboo Royal Shuttle directly beside the Renegade, and asked them to open their cargo bay door. In the back of the shuttle Akira activated the ace he help up his sleeve, the Neutral Detonator which the party had stolen two of from the headquarters of Imperial Intelligence. With a safety buffer three kilometres wide, the device quickly created an expanding ion wave that caught the Empire by complete surprise, disabling their Star Destroyers and forcing them to flee in panic less they be damaged by colliding with other disabled ships.

Although the device itself overloaded the electronics of Akira’s Naboo Royal Shuttle, he ejected the pilot’s seat into space right in the direction of the Renegade’s open cargo door which he safely landed inside of.

With the Imperial blockade broken and in disarray, it’s panicked commanders still attempted to open fire on the fleeing rebels and the party, but their blasters and torpedo’s met only dead space as just before they opened fire the hundreds of transports together, with their destination set for the planet Ossus, made the jump to hyperspace.

The party and the rebels had escaped.

By Any Other Name

In a deep cavern on the arid and toxic world of Ossus the party and their twenty-thousand allies began the hard work of carving out a hospitable home. With access to a vast underground river and natural underground vegetation the party was very hopeful that they would be able to make a home on Ossus and build a secret hidden base for future operations against the Empire.

One day after almost a week had passed after their escape from Coruscant, a small shuttle arrived with a single visitor, Content Not Found: null, who while appearing nervous and uneasy told the party that his master, the Matron wished to speak with the party immediately.

The party boarded the Renegade and flew to the edges of Wild Space once more, where they landed on the uncharted rogue world of Ayi on the very edges of a deadly nebula.

There on the mysterious planet, under the nebula’s glow as bright as any sun the party made their way once more to the ancient and ruined temple long since hidden by the planet’s encroaching jungle on the banks of a raging river.

In the temple Jeyen once again lead the party to the long abandoned throne room, where the Matron waited with her back turned to the party. Jeyen said nothing as he stood in the rooms edge, leaving the party to ask why they had been summoned.

The Matron revealed that she was disappointed that the party had failed to kill either the Emperor or Vader, and that a great opportunity had been lost. Akira reassured the Matron that they had shown that the Empire could be defeated by a population that rises against them, and that the damage they had down to the Empire’s grip of fear was no small feat.

Even still the Matron let the party know how angry she was that after all of the “opportunities for growth and learning” that she had provided them with they hadn’t used their newfound skills to destroy the Emperor with brute strength of might and the Force.. Aiden reassured the Matron that before they were a group of four and were not a group of twenty-thousand, and were sure to rally even more to their side in the coming weeks, months and years.

Still the Matron carried on, telling the party that it was not their job to lead a “political movement” but to install themselves are strong men and Force users to head to galaxy that needed strength and power to control it. Nyla asked the Matron how different could they be from the Emperor if they ruled by the power of the Force and with brute strength as he did? Aidan and Akira joined Nyla in telling the Matron that they didn’t intend to be puppet dictators for anyone, and that they intended to restore freedom to the Galaxy.

The Matron was now enraged, turning her hooded face to see the party and scolding them again for their ignorance and naivety, claiming that they had betrayed her by not following her directives to kill the Emperor so that she could restore order to the Galaxy. She ordered them to immediately aid her in coming up with a new plan to take control of the Empire’s military might and destroy Vader and the Emperor.

The party refused, and though Jeyen now spoke to insist to the Matron that the party’s approach may be useful yet, the Matron with the Force pulled Akira’s and Nyla’s lightsaber’s from them, activating them and holding them to their faces while drawing Aidan’s blaster from his holster and holding it against his head.

The stunned party looked at the Matron as a horrified Jeyen begged his mistress not to kill the party, telling her that so much pain and suffering will have been for nothing if she struck them down.

Nyla stood defiantly against the Matron, telling her that no matter what she did she would not fight the Matron, turning her back on the Matron instead and heading for the throne room’s exist, leaving her lightsaber behind in the Matron’s clutches. Aidan followed suit, telling the Matron that his causes were his own, and he was no one’s mercenary. Akira followed last, simply telling the Matron that they had a rebellion to lead.

Enraged, the Matron let their weapons drop and broke the very walls of the temple apart to hurl at the party, dealing critical damage to the party as their backs were turned and pinning them under massive boulders. Jeyen now pleaded lougly to the Matron that this couldn’t be the will of the Force, that heroes had come so far and grown so strong, and that surely the Force couldn’t be asking them to kill yet more.

The Matron only responded by telling Jeyen that the party were responsible for this outcome themselves, and that if they had listened and obeyed like they were supposed to have she wouldn’t have to be doing this at all. As now the Matron drew even larger boulders and rocks with which she intended to finally crush the heroes, the taunted them one last time, telling them they live in defiance of the will of the Force. It was now that Aidan, Akira and Nyla were ready to face the end of their lives, when Jeyen drew his own lightsaber, ran across the room and plunged it into the heart of his mistress.

Stunning, the staggered back, rage and pain boiling within, until she let out a cry so loud and powerful it blasted the entire temple apart, sending the party hurling into night sky.

Amends

Nyla was the first to wake up in the med bay aboard the Renegade deep in hyperspace, where after seeing that her injured has been tended to, along with a still unconscious but stable Akira and Aidan, she made her way to the Renegade’s bridge where she found Jeyen piloting the ship.

Jeyen explained that the Matron was dead, and that the temple where he had been trained had been destroyed by the Force scream she unleashed in her final moments. When Nyla asked who the Matron really was and why she sought to control the galaxy, Jeyen simply responded that she believed she as the only one who was right, and that for years he had believed her. He did what she told him to because he believed that the Sith would be defeated through her plan and only then could the Galaxy be “free”, though he now understood that what she saw as freedom was only another form of tyranny.

Soon Akira and Aidan came to and joined Nyla and Jeyen on the bridge of the Renegade, where Jeyen now apologized for all the pain, suffering, grief and loss that they had suffered from his doing. He told them he did not deserve forgiveness, but only asked that they know he was sorry.

Even still, the party forgave Jeyen.

The Renegade soon after landed on Dantooine in the starport of the now all but abandoned settlement of Ecumenopolis. There the party exited the ship with Jeyen, who with the Force called for a large beast of burden to come to him so he could take it as his mount.

It was then that Nyla realized that Jeyen was seriously hurt and bleeding, something he had hidden from her. When she said that she could help heal him, Jeyen told Nyla that she could not offer the healing he needed, and that he had a journey to undertake here on Dantooine.

From atop his mount Jeyen told the party that he was very proud of them, and that the galaxy was a far better place for the decisions they’d made, and wished them that the Force would be with them all before leaving into the setting sun of Dantooine in the direction Kiwa village of Purok.

An early fall breeze blew through the grassy plain, rustling the leaves in the trees fast turning brown, orange and red. The settlement that not so long ago was busy with all kinds of activity was now near silent as only the breeze could be heard. No ore boats shipped loads of ore down the river, no ships landed and took off from the starport, and not a single voice could be heard across the countryside.

Nyla, Aidan and Akira agreed that this should be the last time they set foot on Dantooine and boarded the Renegade to make their way to their new home of Ossus. From the bridge of the ship for a brief instance against the setting sun, on a distant hill Nyla and Akira saw the spirits of Content Not Found: null_, Nyla’s master Content Not Found: null_ and Content Not Found: null smiling at them.

The Renegade took to the sky as the party said one last goodbye to the planet that was their home for so much struggles, thankful for the refuge it provided.

With hearts of courage the party left the blue and green world behind for a future they could not understand but none the less were ready to see through, and although there would remain battles to be fought, and trials to be had, friends to come and go and hardships to face, there are those who said that the future was just a little brighter that day for those who survived the dawn of darkness.

*GM’S NOTE: This is not the end of the story, but rather the end of the story I set out to tell. What happens to the player characters is ultimately up to only the players themselves.

Rebel's Forge

Rebellion has come to the streets of the Galactic Capital of Imperial Center, formally Coruscant as our heroes attempted Coup faces it’s greatest challenge yet, the arrival and landing of a task force lead by the sinister Darth Vader.

While Akira Ben Toshi has taken control of the planet’s forces surrounding the Vader’s army and Nyla Hawklight and Thrax lead the blockade preventing more Imperial reinforcements, the party and their burgeoning rebellion has been dealt their greatest setback to date with the capturing of their leader General Aidan Dyre.

With the coup’s backers wavering in the Senate and their own followers in arms ever more hesitant in the face of the oncoming Imperial onslaught, our heroes must now hold the very center of their fledgling band of rebels together if they hope to finally restore freedom to the Galaxy.

Negas and Aidan

Content Not Found: null ruthlessly beat and punished a bound and restrained Aidan in the interrogation cell of the Imperial Starport that Vader’s forces now controlled on the surface of Imperial Center, all the while taunting and teasing Aidan about how he had struck a deal with Vader to help deliver Aidan and his allies.

Although Aidan was weakened by Negas’s relentless beating he was not broken, and in the middle of a cruel taunt about how Aidan would soon join his late friend and colleague Kalko in the ranks of the deceased and just as a dreaded Imperial torture probe droid hovered near with it’s toxin filled needles nearing ever closer to Aidan’s neck, Aidan used the little strength he had left to break his leg bindings and deal a devastating kick to Negas’s face. Aidan then used a great feat of acrobatics to escape his wrist bindings, dislocating his shoulder in the process. He then snapped the interogation droid’s needle off of it’s arm and stabbed Negas in the neck, then roundhouse kicking the droid which exploded into shards on impact with Aidan’s foot. Weakened by the toxic dosage in the interrogation droid’s needle, Negas still attempted to grapple with Aidan, but Aidan was no longer prone and fought back hard, delivering punch and kick after devastating punch and kick until Negas fell to the ground motionless and lifeless under the weight of Aidan’s bloodied fist.

A weakened but now free Aidan took Negas’s data pad, credits and weapon and left the cell, retrieving his armour from the detention area’s storage and sneaking into the starport’s customs warehouse through the ventilation ducts. Once in the warehouse, Aidan stole the largest repulsor-truck he could find, and broke through the warehouse’s sealed doors and rammed head on into the Imperial defensive positions that surrounded the starport’s perimeter, ramming his way through obstacles, obstructions and a firestorm of enemy fire until he reached the friendly lines of the rebellion loyal troops, where Aidan asked to be taken to see Akira.

The Hour Approaches

With Nyla and Thrax coordinating the defence and continued blockade in orbit, Akira and Aidan went to an emergency meeting with Chancellor Vipoth, her advisors along with their unofficial liaison’s in Coruscant’s police force Owen Tobt as well as the head of Senator Iblis’s personal spynet Mar Himar.

Tobt informed the group that the planet’s security forces outside of the resident Stormtrooper legion, the Coruscant Guard were still loyal to Vipoth and didn’t believe that the Emperor was still alive. Himar told the group that there were estimated to be 200,000 troops now within the Imperial Starport complex while 300,000 Coruscant Guard troops and only 50,000 of their troops made up of non-stormtrooper volunteers, veterans and security forces have the starport surrounded and also in reserve based in Monument Plaza. Vipoth agreed that those 50,000 troops could prove critical as the commitment and loyalty of the Coruscant Guard Stormtrooper Legion could not be guarenteed if their commanders decided to suddenly switch loyalties to Vader.

During the meeting a new transmission was sent planet wide from the Imperial held starport that broke through Content Not Found: null and his allies encryption efforts. In it, the Emperor, or an imposter pretending to be him as the party still maintained addressed the planet, asking them to lay down their arms and to stop following the usurper Vipoth and that this “dreadful rebellion would soon be at an end”. Darth Vader then appeared at the end of the transmission, telling all forces to join the Empire or “perish with the rebel scum”.

It was as the Emperor’s speech ended that hundreds of Imperial Naval Squadrons of warships, Star Destroyers, Dreadnaughts and Troop Transports emerged from hyperspace from every direction, numbering more than ten thousand in force. Nyla and Thrax could see right away that their defence against this onslaught was hopeless.

Hearing the hopeless odds in orbit, Vipoth ordered the defence fleet to land on the surface immediatly, to evacuate all loyal personel, troops and civilian alike to the lower levels of the planet’s multi-levelled surface. As Vipoth organized the evacuation of her advisor’s and staff, she asked the party outright if they had anything to do with the Emperor’s alleged death on Naboo.

It was only now that Akira and AIdan confessed that they had killed the Emperor, but explained that he was a tyrant who had manipulated the Galaxy for decades and who had even darker plans for the Galaxy and the horrors of the Clone Wars which he had unleashed himself.

Though enraged that they too had been manipulating to many people, including herself, Vipoth confessed that she and so many others resented the Emperor’s regime of brutality and totalitarian control. Vipoth told Aidan and Akira that f they could lead an assault to capture Vader and retake the starport, and most importantly capture Vader himself then she believed the entire Galaxy would truly rally to their side in the face of the Empire’s most cruel warlord.

Aidan and Akira accepted, and they were joined by Nyla and Thrax whom had just landed in the face of the nearing Imperial assault from orbit. Aidan then explained his plan to the group, they would lead the assault on the starport, and would then separate from the general assault to pursue Vader himself from the location the planet-wide transmission was made from within the starport where he believed Vader to be located. They would then capture Vader with their combined might so that Vipoth could use him as a pawn to negotiate the surrender of the Imperial forces throughout the Galaxy.

With Admiral Xybol’s help, the group coodinated a massive assault on the Imperial held-starport while their allies, including Nyla and Akira’s padawan’s Eldewn and Elsae respectively would help coordinate the evacuation of civilians to the lower levels of the city-wide planet where they would hopefully be safe from the coming battle.

As the Imperial naval armada in orbit began launching it’s troop ships, it’s starfighters and opening fire on the planet surface itself, General Aidan Dyre launched the assault on the Starport to capture Vader once and for all and drive a stake through the Empire’s heart.

The Final Battle Begins

As the party lead the rebels it became clear quite fast that the Imperial defenders of the starport were ready for the onslaught, and believed that they only needed to hold out long enough until their reinforcements from the armada in orbit reached them.

Even still the overwhelming force of the rebels and the Coruscant Guard pushed the Imperial defenders back until after less than half an hour of fighting the forces loyal to Chancellor Vipoth controlled half of the massive complex. It was at this time, as the battle for the starport raged under the light filled sky of the planet’s defensive weapons firing upon the armada in orbit that the party of Aidan, Akira, Thrax and Nyla broke away and made their way towards the transmission tower’s base where they sensed Vader awaited them.

As they drew nearer they were curious to find there to be fewer and fewer Imperial troops loyal to Vader, until they reached the transmission site itself, a massive, cavernous and seemingly empty enclosed broadcast studio where only two figures stood waiting for them. Once was Vader, imposing in his black as the depth of space armour and enveloped in the dark aura of the Dark Side of the Force.

Beside Vader sat in a chair a strange figure, an old man in dark maroon robes. The party looked at one another, stunned and confused. Though none spoke they all knew what each other were thinking. It couldn’t be the Emperor, they HAD killed the Emperor on Naboo, he was certainly DEAD. Wasn’t he?

As if he had read the parties minds at that very instant he said to them “Young ones, you have come so very far, and fought so very hard. You have overcome so much to stand where you stand today, for that you deserve much praise. You are forgiven for thinking that you are worthy of standing in my presence. Yet your ignorance is your undoing, you have trifled with powers beyond your comprehension, you have toyed with Forces that you will never hope to counter, and you have begun a battle which you are fated to loose. For this. You. Will. Die.”

The old man stood up, and with his arms raised unleashed a blinding blue storm of Force Lightning, an infamous power of terrible Dark Side users of legend. In an instant the party knew that somehow, the Emperor had survived and that somehow he stood here now before them.

The Emperor and Vader

With their strength the Force-users repulsed the Emperor’s lightning attack, and with their own lightsaber’s drawn and Aidan’s blasters at the ready thus began a climactic fight. The party of heroes fought with every ounce of strength, every last measure of energy, every tool, every weapon and every skill that they had learned in a year of adventuring together across the Galaxy.

The Emperor and Vader were every bit as ruthless as any foe that they had faced combined, with the Emperor manipulating the Dark Side to make the party believe that horrible creatures were falling from the ceilings and climbing through the floor to attack the party, and Vader using his brute strength to deal crushing damage to one even as strong as Aidan.

Bursts of Force energy tore the studio chamber apart, ripping the floor to shreds and tearing the roof off above, illuminating their fight in the orange yellow and red glow of the setting sun and the fiery battle in the sky above and all around them.

First to call for help was Admiral Xybol, who informed Aidan through his open comlink that reinforcements from orbit had landed in the Imperial-held starport and joined with Vader’s forces defending against his assault and that he was now having to retreat. He also said that he expected the Coruscant Guard Stormtrooper Legion to switch sides at any moment, leaving him only in charge of the 50,000 so called rebels now retreating to and based in Monument Plaza. Aidan gave the order to evacuate those troops to the lower levels of the planet’s surface and to wait for them their when they would arrive with their captive Vader.

The fight continued, with all the heroes exhausting their strength and energy while slowly but surely dealing great damage to Vader and the Emperor as well. Soon after Owen Tobt messaged Akira, telling him that Imperial forces were no pursuing the rebels to the lower levels, having secured nearly all of the capital’s higher levels and that they were taking heavy losses. Soon Content Not Found: null too messaged Aidan warning him that Imperial forces seemed committed to killing every last one of them, but reassured her commander Aidan that her and her fellow Mandalorians were prepared to die in this glorious battle.

As the party continued to fight they realized more and more with pleads for help from the linkes of Tobt, Parias, Lady Neera Garren and Content Not Found: null that their allies were in danger of being routed as they attempted to escape the Imperial onslaught. Still the heroes fought on with ever more determination to kill the Emperor, though were still certain that they had killed him already and to capture Vader.

As against all odds Vader and the Emperor grew weaker and weaker, one final message was relayed to Nyla, from her padawan Eldewn that they and the escaping allies were nearly fully encircled, and were surely soon to perish. Eldewn told Nyla she would protect Content Not Found: null to the very end, but warned that it wouldn’t be long now. Though Akira, Thrax and Aidan told Nyla that they were close to victory, Nyla knew that she couldn’t leave their allies alone to die.

With what little energy she had left, she Force-lept out of the gaping whole in the studio’s roof and ran with a burst of speed through the Imperial lines. When stopped by an obstacle or a line of opposing troops Nyla would use the Force to lift them into the air to hurl them against further oncoming forces, into incoming starfighters or into the sides of the city-planet’s sky scrapers. With her lightsaber drawn Nyla blazed through thickening Imperial lines as she proceeded further and further to the lower levels of the city, panicking the Imperial troops as she tore through their lines with the fire of hell behind her.

Within twenty minutes of leaving the fight with Vader and Palpatine Nyla had reached the front lines of the Empire’s forces and the retreating rebels, defeating more than a dozen elite Stormtroopers in close battle with the rebels and stopping the Imperial’s efforts to encircle the rebels. With the brief window of time Nyla bought the rebels were able to slip further down and faster than the Empire could pursue them.

Nyla joined the leadership of the rebel forces, including her padawan Eldewn and young Umdat. When Admiral Xybol and Chancellor Vipoth asked how the others had fared against Vader, Nyla told them that somehow the Emperor was with Vader and that he was still alive.

The leadership of the rebels knew then that with the Emperor alive and at the head of government once more it didn’t matter whether they captured Vader or not. Their coup was finished, and were now uncertain if they could even survive with the planet’s surface once again controlled by the evil Galactic Empire.

From the Jaws of Defeat

With Nyla having left only Akira, Thrax and Aidan were left to fight Vader and his master the Emperor. As Vader felt himself weakened against the rebel scum in his midst, he harnessed the Force to pull Aidan to him, grabbing at his neck, ripping Aidan’s Mandalorian helmet off with all his strength and squeezing his neck, intent on crushing the life out of him. Aidan resisted as best he could, but knowing he was no match for Vader’s strength he activated his rocket pack, sending he and Vader hundreds of feet into the sky and climbing as the city surface burned beneath them in the red sunset sky. As Vader taunted Aidan that their rebellion was in ashes and that he would now meet his end, Akira, nearing death, pulled a grenade from his belt, activated it, and thrust it against Vader’s helmet with his last once of strength.

The grenade exploded, stunning Vader, causing him to let go of Aidan and fall to the burning ground below. when Aidan came too, he was still in the air, but could not see Vader on the ground below him. Dazed and weakened he attempted to fly down to the studio and rejoin his friends and defeat the Emperor once and for all.

On the ground of what was left of the studio, amongst the twisted metal floors, bursting cables and collapsing ceiling, Akira and Thrax flanked the wounded Emperor, and though he channelled every last once of strength he had in the Force to push them away, both men raised their lightsabers, summoned every last glimmer of the light side of the Force within them and charged him at full speed, impaling him on their blades.

For a moment the Emperor said nothing, stunned that he had been struck and impaled. Then he took a deep breath, and let loose a terrible wale that echoed through the Force itself, Knocking Akira and Thrax backwards. Even Aidan himself, hundreds of meters in the air felt the explosion of energy that knocked him off course, and lay ruin to a great deal of the Imperial starport where the battle had started only thirty minutes before.

Aidan landed as close as he could to the now nearly fully bombed out ruin of the site where the battle took place. He saw Thrax lying unconcious, but oddly enough no sign of the Emperor, or Akira. Only the Emperor’s crimson robes remained, burned and torn from the battle.

Aidan tried to reach Thrax with a medpack but approaching Imperial Stormtroopers opened fire on him, dealing so much damage that he had to leave his unconscious ally behind.

Aidan took the air once more, flying over the charred and smoldering ruins of the city planet’s capital district as the sun finally set. The coup was over, they were defeated, for now. Aidan messaged Nyla on his comlink, and told his anxious ally that Vader was gone, the Emperor was missing, Thrax was unconscious and captured and Akira was nowhere to be found. He told Nyla he would use the city’s sanitation ducts to find his way to her and what was left of the rebel’s forces deep in the lower layers, and would then form their plan of what to do next.

Rebels at the Gates

With the fleeting alliance of rag-tag rebels grip on Imperial Centre stronger with every passing hour, our heroes have won their greatest victory in the battle to decisively cripple the Galactic Empire yet with a brazen assault on Imperial Intelligence’s headquarters and the capture of it’s notorious director Armand Isard.

Yet despite their great victories the battle for the heart of the Old Republic rages on, with the dreaded Lord Vader fast approaching in his hastily assembled war fleet. Even more ominous for our heroes is the figure that Vader claims to carry with him, a man claiming to be the Emperor himself, having survived the assassination on Naboo where our heroes were all but certain they had seen him perish.

With Vader’s task force blazing through hyperspace towards the galactic capital our heroes now face their greatest challenge yet where either the fire of their rebellion will continue to spread or the shroud of the dark side will fall once more.

Allies at the Ready

With Director Isard secured by Dar’Manda Arpat and her loyal Mandalorians, Akira Ben-Toshi and Thrax went to speak to the head of the massive Clone Wars veterans group who were on Imperial Centre prior to the party’s coup to protest the lack of promised benefits and compensation. Aidan Dyre and Nyla Hawklight went to speak with the Corelian Senator Garm Bel Iblis about their chances in defending the planet against Vader’s task force.

With some discussion and promises of recognition of their valour and sacrifice, as well as Chancellor Vipoth’s promise to pay their previously promised benefits in full, Akira and Thrax obtain the pledges of support of the leadership of the Clone Ware veterans group and it’s one and a half million men and women to serve as a militia backstopping the planet’s regular ground based security forces.

While meeting with Senator Iblis in the Imperial Senate building, Aidan and Nyla learn that the man currently in charge of the Imperial Centre Defense Fleet and it’s planetary defences was man named General Skarneh who Aidan remembered as a ruthless and nearly fascist commander in the Clone Wars who had an unwavering loyalty to the then Chancellor Palpatine. Aidan told Nyla and the senator they could not count on the General to defend the planet against his former leader. The second in command for the time being however was a man named Admiral Xybol, an old naval officer with a reputation for fairness and for going by the book. The three agreed that installing Xybol as Commander of the Coruscant Defence Fleet was critical to winning the coming battle, and forged a plan to do just that.

Using Krith Nosix’s slicing skills, the party was able to locate the General in his command headquarters as well as construct false military identities for Aidan and Nyla, Major Tolon and Major Kalib respectively.

Using these identities Nyla and Aidan were able to infiltrate the planetary defence forces headquarters and with Nyla’s use of the Force to persuade others and Aidan’s intimidation factor, the pair were able to reach the General in person so that Nyla could silently and quickly put him in a Force induced fourty-eight hour coma. After making their escape from the command headquarters the pair learned that Admiral Xybol had in fact been named the new head of Imperial Center’s planetary defence forces.

The Shroud Approaches

The party was briefed by Senator Iblis on Admiral Xybol’s defensive plans for repel Vader’s task force, and take up positions in support of the Imperial Centre Defence Fleet with Aidan and Thrax commanding their own Star Destroyers in charge of entire lines of warships and Nyla and Akira taking to their starfighters in charge of their own squadrons.

The battle raged immediately, with Vader’s star destroyer sending out transmissions featuring the “imposter” Emperor to the planet below asking that they surrender and turn on the rebel traitors.

The fleet fought on however with fierce determination and resolve. Aidan and Thrax’s ships traced the transmissions back to Vader’s command ship, and Nyla and Akira lead their squadron’s in a devastating assault on the ship which was destroyed, but not before a shuttle was launched with Vader’s personal starfighter following it close behind.

Akira engaged Vader’s fighter directly but was shot down in his starfighter, with his Padawan Elsae Sarvool and him both ejecting at high altitude at the last moment before they were destroyed along with their starfighter.

Aidan commanded his star destroyer to retrieve Akira and Elsae and to follow the shuttle to land fall, destroying it if they could. While the star destroyer fought as best it could, it was crippled by a swarm of Vader’s V-Wing fighters, forcing it’s crew to abandon ship.

While Akira directed Eldewn to her own safe escape pod, he and Aidan took their own and flew it in pursuit of Vader’s fighter and the shuttle which landed in the heart of a military base and starport that Akira and Aidan had thought was firmly under their control. Instead the base was hesitant to open fire on Lord Vader, and allowed him and the shuttle to land.

As Vader emerges from his starfighter Aidan rockets out of the still in flight escape pod, blasters opening fire on Vader far down on the ground below and is joined by Akira who leaps bravely and aided by the Force to directly confront of Vader.

With an entire military base full of personnel frozen in fear and unsure of which side to fight for, Aidan with his blasters and Akira with his lightsaber battled the Dark Lord of the Sith. The fight was ferocious and grueling, and although Vader took considerable damage, Akira and Aidan were more critically wounded. Upon hearing over their comlinks that the base commander had given the order to arrest them. Aidan and Akira knew they had to flee immediately.

Akira used the Force to leap thirty-meters straight up into the air and landed far away from the Imperial forces now attempting to capture him. He soon rejoined Elsae and the rest of the ground forces loyal to Chancellor Vipoth who were now forming a perimeter around the military base. Aidan used his rocket pack to attempt an aerial escape, but was soon swarmed by Stormtroopers in jet packs. Despite engaging his afterburners, Aidan was knocked unconscious in the ensuing fight.

Uncertain of their friend’s fate, Akira took command of the ground forces surrounding the military base now loyal to Vader. While in orbit Nyla & Thrax continued to engage with what remained of Vader’s task force, gaining the critical upper hand. On the planet below, their loyal forces began massing in Monument Plaza, preparing for an all out ground war for control of the planet’s surface.

In His Talons

Dazed, and striped of his armour and weapons, Aidan slowly came too. He found himself in a dank and poorly lit room guarded by four Imperial regular soldiers. A familiar, refined voice hidden in the shadows spoke to Aidan. Recognizing his tormentor as the former bounty hunter Negas, Aidan watched as the Nautolan emerged to taunt him with a mere smile and a puff of smoke blown directly in Aidan’s face. Confidently, Negas explained that at the behest of Lord Vader, he would be interrogating Aidan.

Renegade Rebellion

The Crawl

Through harrowing feats of combat strength and political manipulation, our heroes have achieved what none could have thought possible only a year ago, the assassination of the EMPEROR of the GALACTICEMPIRE, the securing of the galactic capital IMPERIALCENTER, and the appointment of a new Chancellor who’s help they now seek to bring about the end once and for all of the so called New Order.

Even with these titanic achievements behind them however their task is still yet to be complete, as our heroes, newly reunited on IMPERIALCENTER venture out to secure the headquarters of the feared New Order stronghold of IMPERIALINTELLIGENCE, keenly aware all the while that the whereabouts of the dreaded DARTHVADER still remains unknown throughout the madness the days past.

Yet our heroes press ever onwards and forward as their ultimate victory against the Empire at is nearly at hand, even as a Galaxy of enemies unknowingly draw their plans against them…

Renegade Imperium

The Crawl

s the chrono ticks down to the date of the plot slay the evil EMPERORPALPATINE, our heroes race to finish drawing their plans against the GALACTICEMPIRE in the hope that they’re small band of renegades can do what seems impossible.

Yet brave as our heroes may be they know that danger now lurks behind every corner they pass as they set themselves to take on a force that spans the entire galaxy and holds a universe of dark secrets that they could not begin to imagine, enemy agents, spies, monstrous creations, none worse than the Emperor’s deadliest henchman, the sinister DARTHVADER.

Still the allies of Ando bravely venture on, knowing that they may face their ultimate destiny in only a few days time as they struggle to end the purge of the Jedi, defeat the Sith, and restore peace and freedom to the galaxy.

Shadows Rising

The Crawl

ith our heroes crossing the depths of space to unite their allies together in their cause of freedom, a grand coalition has now been formed as our heroes begin to draw their plans against the Galactic Empire and it’s ruler, the evil EMPERORPALPATINE.

Though solid as their plan may be thus far, with few days left to ready their plot all know very well that they are facing an enemy greater than any they have ever faced before, a threat that should they fail would easily endanger not only them but all those they care for as well.

Yet in the face of great uncertainty our heroes venture forward, with the help of the mysterious Jeyen and his master who helped orchestrate the events of the past ten months in the hope that it is not too late to stop the rise of the EMPIRE, and to restore the Jedi Order to it’s place in the galaxy…

Fire and Light

The Crawl

ith Outlander defeated once and for all, our heroes embarked on a mission to retrieve an Imperial fugitive and his stolen bounty which he offered to them in exchange for safe haven on their adopted homeworld of DANTOOINE.

In the process however our heroes have once again met the mysterious fiend JEYEN, orchestrator of the assassination they were first blamed for almost a year earlier. Even stranger still, Jeyen has brought our heroes before his own master, THEMATRON, a woman who claims to have been manipulating events for nearly a year now, further testing, bettering, and making the player party stronger for her ultimate task, to overthrow the EMPEROR of the Galactic Empire, whom she claims to be none other than a masquerading Sith Lord.

Confronted with these shocking claims, a great many questions now lay before Aidan, Akira, Nyla and Thrax as they are faced with a danger unlike any they have ever faced, and the chance to work with their possible new allies to change the face of the Galaxy forever…

The Crawl

lazing their way through the hyperspace lanes and emerging in the heart of the galaxy, our heroes have won their greatest victory to date, defeating once and for all the sinister forces of OUTLANDER, and rescuing their captured friends in the process, bringing peace at last to their adopted homeworld of DANTOOINE.

Little do the heroes know however that as they celebrate their epic achievement, an unseen hand is still conspires to direct them in their travels and adventures, and unseen hand that now prepares to reveal itself and make itself known to all who’s fates it has touched.

With this unseen hand who our heroes have not met since the planet Ando nine months ago lurking closer than ever before, our friends may just soon find their celebrations endangered by a stark choice that could effect not only their own future, but the future of the entire galaxy…

Fire and Stone

The Crawl

s the long and difficult cleanup of Ecumenopolis begins, our heroes are now faced with their greatest challenge yet in the wake of the disappearance of their brave and valiant leader, AIDANDYRE in the midst of the recent OUTLANDER assault.

With limited resources and few allies to call their own, our heroes have never the less rallied an armada of starships, fighters and brave soliders willing to put their lives at risk to stand against the forces of terror that threaten to tear the Galaxy apart.

Now with the epic battle against the mercenary armies of Outlander in the NALCLOONUS Asteroid field in the DEEPCORE of the galaxy fast approaching, the stage is set for a confrontation where the choices of a small few may change the course of galactic history…

The Crawl

ith their triumphant victory over the sinister forces of OUTLANDER complete, our heroes and defenders of the planet Dantooine now begin calculating their next move. With their friend and teacher the Old Wise One among the dead, and the Mandalorian general Aidan Dyre missing in battle, the future has never been more uncertain.

With Outlanders plot of weaponizing massive asteroids to be used as planet destroying devices revealed, our friends are now tasked with assembling not just a resistance force to defend their adopted homeworld, but an army that can strike through the black of space at tyranny’s heart wherever it lay.

Even now as our heroes pool their resources together, the dark forces conspire to wage an unrelenting war of horrors on not only the sinister Galactic Empire, but an entire unsuspecting galaxy and all it’s peoples whether our heroes can be ready to stop them or not…